Abstract: Report after report assessing climate science details a growing mountain of evidence that climate change is indeed happening and that it is human caused. Considering this: how do climate sceptics maintain their scepticism? What can the LCT concept of constellations reveal about their belief systems and inform strategies of engagement with climate sceptics? This roundtable will employ constellations analysis to three central climate sceptic blogs and propose an extreme form of knowledge code that impedes knowledge-building. The climate sceptic blogosphere is a key venue for the development and distribution of climate misinformation. Recent political events have underscored the importance of understanding how climate denial is cultivated and legitimated online. Malcom Robert’s maiden speech to the Australian Senate, for insta…

Alex Page and I are coordinating a Unit for Winter School, the Sociology of Deviance and Difference, and we wrote a brief note for the Unit of Study to convey the ethos and importance of such a topic. Here it is: A
Brief Note From Your Course Coordinators: We would both
like to formally welcome you to the Winter School version of Sociology of
Deviance and Difference for 2017! In this intensive unit over the next two and half
weeks we – Mathew Toll and Alex Page – will be working with you to unpack the
nature of deviance and difference and ask questions like: what is deviance? Is it socially constructed?
And if so, how and why is it constructed in certain ways? Who gets to set the
rules? Who gets to label someone a deviant? How is deviance and difference
experienced? And, what are the relations of power at play that determine
constructions of normalcy? Why this way and not another? These questions will
inform the discussion of various social fields of practice to see who wins and
who is …

This week I did a lecture in Sociological Theory on Michel Foucault - Fadi and Alex did me a favour and filmed it for me. And Fadi has posted it on his youtube channel - if you are interested in an introduction to Foucault: here it is. I have also uploaded the audio to soundcloud.

The Second International Legitimation Code Theory Conference is happening at the University of Sydney, July 2017. I have a paper in the conference: Title: Hyper-Knowledge Codes: Contesting Knowledge-Building on the Climate Sceptic Blogosphere.Knowledge codes are
not guarantees of knowledge-building; in fact, some may hinder it. This paper
explores a ‘hyper-knowledge codes’ through a cosmological analysis of climate
sceptic blogs. Studies of the field of production that employ Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) have principally focused on disciplines where the basis of
legitimation is a knower code. Maton (2014: 38) identifies the potential of
social knower codes to fragment disciplines and undermine knowledge-building.
While studies of knowledge code disciplines, e.g. physics, chemistry and
biology, have focused on impediments students face to educational attainment
and the realization of legitimate knowledge and not the field of
production. Yet, outside knower code disciplines, LCT sug…

A guest post from Alexander Page on 'doing a Phd'. Alex is a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney looking into Indigenous community organisations in Western Sydney and their interactions with government. - Mathew.
The Tips!– You v The Thesis – it’s up to you to take control of your thesis, it’s a training period and it will be hard, but you’ve got that will power to get here – make sure you maintain it throughout) – “What’s next?” – a key question to ask yourself at all times. You always need to keep moving forward in the PhD, otherwise you’ll not only feel worse, but you may drown! Ask yourself, “what’s next?” and then “how much can you do in 3.5 years?” – this will keep you moving, no matter how small – Chip away / The Marathon Mentality – this is not a sprint, it’s a long slug. Chipping away, everyday, whether it be a book, 3 journals, 1000 words or whatever, just make sure you’re moving every single day – Look for diamonds in everything / collect, don’t …